Royal Mail breaks silence over 'disgusting' fines for people making stamp mistake

[TrueBlueTerrier]

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/m ... r-28901578

The move comes after the company replaced old stamps with ones that have barcodes

Royal Mail has come under fire over £5 "fines" for households due to "counterfeit stamps". If the post is deemed to have been sent with a "counterfeit" stamp, then Royal Mail will put a yellow sticker on it, which warns the recipient they have to pay a fee of £5.

The move comes after the company replaced old stamps with ones that have barcodes, but households who received the stamp having sent off for replacements say the stamps were later deemed "counterfeit" through no fault of their own.

One Twitter/X user fumed: "I know the Post Office/Royal Mail are likely to have pay some big fines following that ITV drama, but charging £5 to deliver a Xmas card due to what they claim to be a ‘counterfeit stamp’ seems excessive. Is that there way to claw back the money? @RoyalMailHelp "

Nic said: "How disgusting are @RoyalMail @RoyalMailHelp They say I had a package that postage wasn't paid correctly on, only to find out today it was a Christmas card & they said stamp was counterfeit. Find that hard to believe, as it was purchased from their website. £5 they ripped me off."

A third said: " @PostOffice charged for having a counterfeit stamp on an envelope and no explanation of how its counterfeit...unless you're now selling counterfeit stamps at your post offices now as thats where it cam from. Please help me understand as @RoyalMailHelp were absolutely no 'help'."

A fourth typed: "Hello @RoyalMailHelp - this is NOT a counterfeit stamp but you tried to charge my friend £5 to collect a (very overdue) Christmas card. A local postmaster tells us this has been happening to lots of people for months, and is a known issue with the barcodes. So what’s going on?"

A Post Office spokesperson said: "Stamps are available to buy from a number of different sources. Post Office Ltd receives its stamps direct from Royal Mail’s secure printers. Customers who buy stamps at Post Offices are given an itemised receipt, and this is required to investigate any allegations of fake stamps."

The spokesperson added: "Any allegation that fake stamps have been purchased at a Post Office are extremely serious. The implication of such an allegation is that one of our Postmasters, or a member of their staff, has obtained fake stamps and have chosen to sell them to customers rather than selling legitimate stamps that have come from Royal Mail’s secure printers. This is why we insist that any customer who thinks they may have purchased a fake stamp from a Post Office must produce an itemised receipt so that this can be looked into further."

[TrueBlueTerrier]

They still appear not to have learnt from the Horizon enquiry do they.

Customers, or Post Office are to blame, no hint of looking at themselves.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

another similar News Story https://www.mirror.co.uk/money/royal-ma ... s-32459446

[Tman]

Seems sensible to me. If they're fake say where you bought them so it can checked out.
Hardly RM's fault if some choose to buy (or sell) counterfeit stamps.

[DGH]

Seems sensible to me. If they're fake say where you bought them so it can checked out.
Hardly RM's fault if some choose to buy (or sell) counterfeit stamps.

But it is entirely RM's fault if the stamps in question are in fact genuine and it's RM's systems that are falsely identifying them as counterfeit.
It seems astonishingly unlikely that country-wide counterfeiting of stamps is taking place and rather more likely that RM have glitchy IT. Bit like it was ludicrously unlikely that so many postmasters were embezzling money from the Post Office . . . and RM's response to the stamp issue is scarily akin to that of the PO and Horizon

[SpacePhoenix]

Most likely is that the unique ID number in the barcode has already been used. The system sees that the ID number has already been used for another item of mail and flags it as a reused stamp.

[TrueBlueTerrier]

The move comes after the company replaced old stamps with ones that have barcodes, but households who received the stamp having sent off for replacements say the stamps were later deemed "counterfeit" through no fault of their own.

So whilst its possible that some have used the stamp twice, or they have been scanned twice, Royal Mail still need to make sure their system is not at fault rather than making a blanket denial. They made that mistake with the Horizon system.

[CarryingMGMT]

Hmmm, just lay the blame on customers/employees and draw the bonuses anyway.

Trickle down economics

[Route1]

Its RM that are fecked. I bought Tracked postage online from the RM website. My friend got a £5 "fee to pay" card. Its was a small parcel weighing less than a kg.

[SpacePhoenix]

Its RM that are fecked. I bought Tracked postage online from the RM website. My friend got a £5 "fee to pay" card. Its was a small parcel weighing less than a kg.

What was the "declared" weight of it? RM are now cracking down on where people declare a weight but where the actual weight is a lot more.

[Tman]

Hmmm, just lay the blame on customers/employees and draw the bonuses anyway.
Trickle down economics

Hmmm, just lay the blame on corrupt RM staff whether guilty or not.
Nothing like actually investigating the problem first before casting aspersions.

[CarryingMGMT]

Hmmm, just lay the blame on customers/employees and draw the bonuses anyway.
Trickle down economics

Hmmm, just lay the blame on corrupt RM staff whether guilty or not.
Nothing like actually investigating the problem first before casting aspersions.

Lol! Nothing like taking massive bonus payments for your hard work.

[Mr Rush]

But it is entirely RM's fault if the stamps in question are in fact genuine and it's RM's systems that are falsely identifying them as counterfeit.
It seems astonishingly unlikely that country-wide counterfeiting of stamps is taking place and rather more likely that RM have glitchy IT. Bit like it was ludicrously unlikely that so many postmasters were embezzling money from the Post Office . . . and RM's response to the stamp issue is scarily akin to that of the PO and Horizon

Everyone hold onto your surcharged envelopes for when the company finally admits error in 2049. Not that £5 will get you much by then and who's to say the company will even still exist.

[Route1]

Its RM that are fecked. I bought Tracked postage online from the RM website. My friend got a £5 "fee to pay" card. Its was a small parcel weighing less than a kg.

What was the "declared" weight of it? RM are now cracking down on where people declare a weight but where the actual weight is a lot more.

Declared weight was 2kg. I always declare 2kg as thats the max allowed for the min parcel size.
Parcel was 33cm x 24cm x 11cm & under 1kg. I declared small parcel (45cm x 35cm x 16cm )weighing 2kg.

Had the surcharge twice now